The amount China spent on fighting HIV/Aids quadrupled to US$530 million last year from US$124 million in 2007, making the nation an important player in the global campaign against the disease, a UNAids report said yesterday.
China is now one of the top five contributors to research into HIV, spending US$18.3 million last year, including the pursuit of a vaccine.
The report singled out as a milestone a new level of access to antiretroviral treatment - for the first time, half of the people who needed the treatment, about eight million, had access to the drugs.
The report was released ahead of the 19th International Aids Conference in Washington next week.
It said annual new infections had dropped by 20 per cent over the past decade, to 2.5 million last year. The number of people worldwide with HIV/Aids totalled 34.2 million.
Steve Kraus, the director of the UNAids regional support team for Asia and the Pacific, said people could for the first time since the virus emerged talk about reversing the rise in the number of infections, and even an end to the epidemic.
